If you haven't been following along with EA's news from the Gamescom convention this week, you've missed out on some pretty big news concerning The Simpsons: Tapped Out on iOS (you know, that game that released and then crashed and burned under server issues, causing it to be removed from the App Store). Specifically, the news concerns a relaunch of the game in North America, which will happen "soon." Fortunately for Canadian gamers, Tapped Out has already relaunched on the iTunes App Store, allowing you to jump back into Springfield once more.

After downloading a fairly substantial update, gamers will be forced to repeat the game's tutorial section, even if they never deleted the app in the first place. But don't worry, your previous in-game progress is still safe, so long as you logged into EA's Origin service prior to this relaunch. After the tutorial, just log back into Origin (via the game's social screen), and the game will reload with your saved version of Springfield intact. Unfortunately, if you didn't log in with Origin, it appears all of your work is now lost to the ether.

To compensate for the many issues players have experienced since the Simpsons: Tapped Out originally launched last February, all players are being given 60 free Donuts, the game's premium currency. Does that make up for the time some players lost on Springfields that will never be recovered? Perhaps, but hopefully this will ultimately serve as a lesson for developers everywhere to test their servers under heavy strain before releasing them to the public at large, especially when dealing with a license as popular as the Simpsons.